Chapter 15: The Stairwell

The woman in red glasses moved first.

She stepped between me and Colson, took the tulips out of his hand, and pointed them at the elevator.

"Sir," she said in careful English, "the lift is this way."

The shy engineer was already holding the door open with one arm.

Colson looked at me one more time, as if I might stop it.

I didn't.

The doors closed on his sunburned face, and the receptionist dropped the tulips into the bin under her desk.

Nobody clapped.

Seven people went back to their desks without a single glance at me, which was the kindest thing anyone had done all week.

I walked to the fire door at the end of the hall and pushed it open.

The stairwell was cool and smelled like concrete and floor wax.

I went down half a flight, turned around, and waited.

Dojin came through the door and let it close behind him.

He stood on the landing above me with his hands open at his sides.

"Tell me," I said.

"Six months ago, the head office asked me for one name to offer a transfer."

"I had read your notes on a game we were bringing over, and I wrote yours down."

"You said no, and I was told to close the slot."

"I said to leave it open."

"Why?"

"Because you did not say no like a person who didn't want it."

He pushed his glasses up with one finger.

"You said no like a person who had been told what she was allowed to want."

"I never wrote to you again. I never asked how you were. I only told the director you would say yes when your reasons changed."

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